Five years out from the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and with another sequel only in the distant future, now is the perfect time to look back at earlier entries and return to Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Released in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS, New Leaf has always been among the best AC titles. Its cozy atmosphere, funny characters, and charming graphics all come together to form the ideal life sim, which is exactly why New Leaf is the game to start playing right now.

After five years of New Horizons, the game has gotten incredibly stale. The gameplay loop of chores, crafting, and chatting to Villagers, only to receive the same dozen or so lines of dialogue and DIY recipes every day, is tiring. If you’ve felt unfulfilled after a few years of New Horizons, then New Leaf will be a breath of fresh air, though with ittedly less than stellar graphics.

Why You Should Be Playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf

The 2012 Classic Deserves More Attention

The number one appeal of Animal Crossing is the Villagers. Most of the time spent in-game is dedicated to Villagers in one way or another, whether that be speaking to them, completing quests on their behalf, or convincing them to move into your town. While New Horizons is a great Animal Crossing game, its biggest failure is in its Villagers. The New Horizons Villagers are vapid, empty shells compared to New Leaf, which is precisely why every fan should experience the 2013 classic.

All Villagers in Animal Crossing: New Leaf and New Horizons have one of eight personality types. These types are lazy, normal, peppy, jock, cranky, snooty, sisterly, and smug. In New Leaf, these personalities are strong, and depending on the type, it can take a long time to truly befriend a villager. Normal or Peppy Villagers are friendly to the player immediately, but Snooty and Cranky ones will be outright rude before finally coming around.

On paper, this doesn’t sound incredibly appealing, but having to earn a friendship in-game makes New Leaf much more rewarding than New Horizons. The more recent title has Villagers with no bite, making them all feel like empty shells, especially when they all repeat the same four or five lines of dialogue daily. NH Villagers are also far too nice. From the very first conversation, they act like best friends with the player and their dialogue never changes from that point forward.

New Leaf Is Far Better Than New Horizons

Villagers Have More Bite

The point of Animal Crossing is for the player to dedicate themselves to a town and all its residents and, over time, mold it into their home. New Horizons lets players do this quite literally by allowing terraforming and an extensive amount of crafting to shape the island into whatever the player wants. Visually, this allows for unprecedented freedom of expression, but that’s where the improvements end over New Leaf.

New Leaf feels like an actual town, with real shops and facilities to visit, full of unique NPCs. Main Street, which was abandoned in New Horizons, has the post office, Able Sisters, the furniture store, a hair salon, and more. It feels much more like a town the player has ed and can feel at home in, rather than a deserted island in which the player controls every aspect of life. In this way, New Leaf is a lot like Stardew Valley. Coming into a preexisting town to in on life and learn about relationships creates a much cozier vibe than founding a new town and curating its Villagers based on cuteness.

Switch 2's Animal Crossing Should Learn From New Leaf

Combine The Best Of Both Games

Nintendo hasn’t yet confirmed when the next Animal Crossing will be released, but based on the success of New Horizons, it’s sure to happen in the near future for the Nintendo Switch 2. The next title should take the best from every Animal Crossing game, but especially New Leaf. New Horizons was a great game for customization, but ended up feeling more like a decorating simulator than a life simulator. The most important aspect that the next sequel should work to improve on is Villagers.

Modifying Villager personalities and actions to be more like New Leaf would make the next title far more immersive than New Horizons. Earning a relationship by slowly building it through chats and gifts is the most important thing to improve. If the next game manages to take New Horizons customization and New Leaf’s Villagers and overall cozy vibe, then it could potentially be the best game in the entire series.